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RANDOM NOTES ON
THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY MARCH l8 AND APRIL 15, 1889 *
BY FRANK H. SEVERANCE.
The present sketch undertakes to show how residents of
Buffalo have exploited themselves in the fields of literature. The
material achievements of this city are well known. Our iron
ships and railway cars, our elevators, our stoves, our soap, and
our beer are world famous; but what have we to boast in the way
of historians, novelists and poets ?
The putting-up of writings in book-form does not constitute
literature, though it is often so regarded. As the present survey
is to be of such literature as is found in books, the scope of the
article would be most accurately shown by the title, “The Books
and Bookmakers of Buffalo.’’ From the first (and the fact is
not peculiar to Buffalo), the best thoughts, the best presentation
of facts, the strongest logic, and the most poetic verse, ha.ve
been written for the newspapers. There is nothing better in our
local literature than some of the work on the press, read today
and for the most part forgotten tomorrow. This much of
recognition to the literary quality of Buffalo journalism is due;
and with this bare statement must be dismissed the many works
of Stirling literary worth which have enriched the newspapers of
this city for three-quarters of a century.
♦Revised and included in this volume at the request of the editor's associates on
the Publication Committee.—Ed.
339340
RANDOM NOTES ON
The literary impulse came to Buffalo along with the ax and
the rifle of the pioneers. The first press was brought here from
Canandaigua in 1811 by Smith H. and Hezekiah A. Salisbury,
brothers, and from it was issued, October 3d of that year, the first
number of Buffalo’s first newspaper, the Gazette. With the excep-
tion of a small paper printed at Batavia in 1807, the Buffalo Gazette
was the first paper published in New York State, west of Canan-
daigua. The Salisburys had brought with them a small stock of
books, pamphlets and stationery, which they liberally advertised
in the not overcrowded columns of their paper. In the issue of
November 25, 1811, was advertised “The Child’s Catechism, or
a New Help for Instructing the Rising Generation,” etc., “for
sale by J. Alexander, Minister of the Gospel.” It appears as if
this were printed by the Salisburys, perhaps at Canandaigua; but
in lack of proof it will hardly do to reckon it as a Buffalo publi-
cation. In August of the following year the Gazette advertised a
pamphlet lately issued from its own press, the full title of which,
as we learn from copies still extant, is as follows:	“Public
Speeches, delivered at the Village of Buffalo, on the 6th and 8th
days of July, 1812, by Hon. Erastus Granger, Indian Agent, and
Red Jacket, one of the Principal Chiefs and Speakers of the
Senaca Nation, respecting the Part the Six Nations would take
in the Present War against Great Britain.”* Careful scrutiny of
the Gazette columns does not discover any announcement of any
pamphlet printed in Buffalo before this. How could the litera-
ture of Buffalo more appropriately begin than with the speeches
of Red Jacket?
Three years after the first village had been wiped out by fire,
the original Buffalo Library was organized. It was incorporated
in 1816 with most of the “ prominent citizens ” of the place as
members. It accumulated seven hundred books, and in 1838
was absorbed by the Young Men’s Association. Then came the
Buffalo Lyceum, the outgrowth of a suggestion made in 1832 by
Theodotus Burwell. It gathered a small library and became the
patron of the first literary periodical in this part of the land, the
Literary Inquirer. This journal started in January, 1832, as a
semi-monthly, at $1.50 per year. It was “devoted to literature
*See “ The First Buffalo Book,” Appendix of this volume.—Ed.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
341
ancl science/’ was edited by W. Verrinder, and published at No.
177 Main Street. With the second volume S. G. Bacon became
an associate editor, and the patronage of the Buffalo Lyceum was
withdrawn.
The Inquirer was a good deal of a paper. It aimed, as its
prospectus said, “ to secure admission into the temple of science,
the mart of business, and the domestic circle,” and it seems to
have got in. It published original poetry in plenty, also stories,
and maintained special departments of several degrees of dreari-
ness. It offered premiums for the best literary contributions, the
first committee of award consisting of Theodotus Burwell, Dr.
B. Burwell, G. W. Johnson, D. Tillinghast, the Hon. Millard
Fillmore, the Hon. James Stryker and O. Follett. It is a matter
of deep chagrin that none of the prizes was taken by Buffalo
writers, though two went to the literary center of Lockport. In
1834 the first prize for an original story was taken by S. Stevens of
Buffalo, afterwards of Newstead, this county. So far as dis-
covered Stevens was the first writer of stories who lived in Buf-
falo. The prize narrative was entitled “The Contrast,” and
was a tale of Canadian adventure. It was a good story, written
with more regard for style than characterizes the average news-
paper tale of today. The Inquirer afterwards developed into a
tri-weekly.
The earliest writers, of Buffalo who went into the business of
authorship with seriousness were usually clergymen. Ardent in
the promulgation of their own * doxies, they delighted in contro-
versy and argument, whether in pulpit or pamphlet. It is worthy
of note in passing, that the Buffalo press developed early. Al-
though, as already noted, the first printing-press was set up here
in 1811, the power-press did not come until 1836; yet books,
well printed and durably bound, were published here several
years before that date. In 1824 H. A. Salisbury published the
Apocryphal New Testament in most creditable style. Two years
before that, in 1822, the same enterprising publisher brought
forth a big book with the following sufficient title:	“A Reli-
gious Convincement and Plea for the Baptism and Communion
of the Spirit, and that which is of Material Bread, Wine and
Water rejected as Jewish Rites ; both unprofitable, and the cause342
RANDOM NOTES ON
of Great Division among Christians; also some Remarks on ^he
Abuse, Use, and Misapplication of the Scriptures, and the Eccle-
siastical Succession refuted; whereby the Rite to Ordain by the
Laying-on of Hands is lost; besides not necessary to qualify a
Gospel Minister.” It is not surprising after such a title, to find
that the author, one Tallcut Patching, required four hundred and
fifty-three pages for his long-drawn patch-work. A card at the
end of his performance, after the fashion of the colophon in
ancient tomes, informs the reader that “ a copy of this Book may
be had by applying to the Author at Boston, Erie Co.,” showing
that this devout gentleman narrowly escaped being a Buffalo
author. His work, though, well bound in calf, is greatly to the
credit of Buffalo’s pioneer publisher. It would seem as if, in the
decade that elapsed between the issuance of Granger’s and Red
Jacket’s “ Public Speeches” and this work of Patching’s, some
book or pamphlet should have come from Salisbury’s press; yet
I know of nothing (newspapers excepted) with a Buffalo imprint
from 1812 to 1822.
Nor do I undertake to say what was the first book of strictly
local authorship. The earliest one learned of after Patching’s
was a volume of “Letters, addressed to several Philanthropic
Statesmen and Clergymen, vindicating Civilized and Christian
Government, in contradistinction to Un-Civilized and Anti-
Christian,” which rather gratuitous service was performed by
John Casey, agent for promoting the “ Establishment of Peace”
societies. The book was printed by Lazell & Francis in Buffalo,
in 1826. In the same year this firm also published Frederick
Butler’s “History of the United States.”
Dr. Cyrenius Chapin came to Buffalo in 1801, and died in
1838. In 1836 he wrote, and D. P. Adams, proprietor of the
Advocate office at Black Rock, published, a pamphlet review of a
then recent book, by John Armstrong, entitled “ Notices of the
War of 1812.” Dr. Chapin was a major in that war, and Arm-
strong was Secretary of War. Dr. Chapin’s little book says of
the latter’s work that it contains “Some truth, some gross
blunders, and many falsehoods.” The work of this early local
writer is delightfully fierce, but has its value as a contemporary
record of those troublous days along the Niagara.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
343
The Rev. Miles P. Squier, D. D., was installed pastor of the
Presbyterian Congregation in Buffalo, May 3, 1816—the second
minister of that sect to undertake Gospel work here. He was
not only a devout man, fitted for hardy pioneer work, but
possessed literary tastes and ability. Many writers on the early
days of Buffalo have borne witness to the good and refining
influences exerted by Dr. Squier, who during the seven years
and over of his pastorate added one hundred and fifty-eight
members to the “Old First.” The Rev. Dr. A. T. Chester, in
a poem read at the semi-centennial of the First Church, thus
happily referred to this pioneer :
The past is all thine own; look back and see
How graciously thy God hath dealt with thee.
Pastors have served thee, faithful, pure of blame,
Worthy to wear that consecrated name.
Squier, of keen mind and philosophic acts,
Thy patient shepherd in the days long past,
Now solves the problem, “ Where does ill begin ? ”
Gives God the glory and to man the sin.
For many years Dr. Squier sent occasional articles to the
American Biblical Repository, the Bibliotheca Sacra, the Pres-
byterian Quarterly and Theological Review, the New York Ob-
server, and the New York Evangelist. As an author he is most
widely known by the volume—happily referred to by Dr. Chester
—entitled “The Problem Solved, or Sin not of God,” pub-
lished in 1855 ; and by the larger, more popular and more useful
volume entitled “ Reason and the Bible, or the Truth of Rev-
elation ” published in i860. In 1849 Dr. Squier became pro-
fessor of intellectual and moral philosophy in Beloit College, a
post which he held for fourteen years. He died June 22, 1866.
Since his death many of his lectures and sermons have been
published, among them being a collection entitled “Ten Lec-
tures on European Topics, and Lectures at Beloit College.”
There will be no serious effort to be strictly chronological in
these notes, but rather, to group writers according to the char-
acter of their work; and so we turn at once to the following
passage which John Quincy Adams wrote in his Diary:
October 2g, 1843, Buffalo : Mr. Fillmore offered us seats in his pew at
the Unitarian Church, which we accepted. The preacher was Mr. Hosmer.
.	.	. An excellent and eminently practical sermon.344
RANDOM NOTES ON
The Rev. George Washington Hosmer came to Buffalo in
1836, and was installed pastor of the Unitarian Church (Church
of Our Father), a post which he faithfully held until 1866, when
he accepted the presidency of Antioch College, at Yellow
Springs, Ohio. He died in 1881. The following year his
children published a memorial volume containing an account of
his life and a choice collection of his sermons and miscellaneous
writings, several of the latter being papers prepared for the
Historical Society. He is well entitled to a place among the
authors of Buffalo.
As we look back aRng the ranks of earlier years, the form of
Dr. John C. Lord appears, looming, like Saul, head and shoul-
ders above his companions. The figure is used in an applied,
and not a literal sense. It was as a thinker, as a moral and
literary force, that Dr. Lord was distinguished. Pioneer,
preacher and poet, there are few names in our roll of honor wor-
thier than his. He was pastor of the Central Presbyterian
Church for thirty-eight years. He gathered what in his day was
the most valuable private library fn Buffalo. All his life long he
was a great lover of books, almost as Macaulay himself, and he
was full of information on nearly every subject. He was a rapid
writer, many of his most eloquent sermons and addresses being
prepared so quickly that from the pen of a man less thoroughly
well informed they would have been superficial and uninteresting.
“ He writes rapidly,” says Dr. Samuel Johnson, “who writes
out of his own head,” and Dr. Lord was one who had rarely to
refer to a book after he took his seat at his desk.
He loved Buffalo. Among his poems, which were published
in book form in 1869, he has not forgotten to sound her praises:
Queen of the Lakes, whose tributary seas
Stretch from the frozen regions of the North
To Southern climates, where the wanton breeze
O’er field and forest goes rejoicing forth:
As Venice, to the Adriatic Sea
Was wedded, in her brief, but glorious day;
So broader, purer waters are to thee,
To whom a thousand streams a dowry pay.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
345
What tho’ the wild winds o’er thy waters sweep,
While lingering Winter howls along thy shore,
And solemnly “ deep, calleth unto deep,”
While storm and cataract responsive roar.
’Tis music fitting for the brave and free,
Where Enterprise and Commerce vex the waves;
The soft voluptuous airs of Italy
Breathe among ruins and are wooed by slaves.
Thou art the Sovereign City of the Lakes,
Crowned and acknowledged; may thy fortunes be
Vast as the domain which thy empire takes,
And Onward as thy waters to the sea.
In a memorial paper on Dr. Lord, read before the Buffalo
Historical Society, April 2, 1877, the Hon. James O. Putnam
has given to local history a valuable study of the life, character
and labors of Dr. Lord, who was, to quote Mr. Putnam’s words,
for many years a large part of the intellectual, the moral, and, in its best
sense, the political history of Buffalo. .	.	. Himself a poet, his fancy
literally revelled in the imagery of the Hebrew melodists. I doubt if I ever
heard him preach that he did not invest much of his thought with the poetry
of the Old Testament.
As illustrating his love for sacred poetry, Mr. Putnam has
related how he called on Dr. Lord, a few weeks before his death:
He asked me to read the translation of the Russian Hymn to the Deity—
a favorite, and a hymn of marvelous grandeur and sublimity. The reading
concluded, he pronounced it the noblest of modern hymns of praise. I said I
knew another not unworthy to go with it, and read his own “ Ode to God.”
At the conclusion of the reading, the tears flowing down his cheeks, he said:
“ It is better than I thought.”
The “Ode to the Deity ” is the first in the volume of Dr.
Lord’s collected poetry, written during a period of forty years
and first published by Breed & Lent of this city in 1869. It is a
noble production of eighty-eight lines, the exalted and impas-
sioned character of which is fairly shown by the following
fragment:
Millions of eyes, oh God, are gazing out
Upon Thy works—Who knows them? Who hath found
The bound of Being ? Philosophy, in doubt—
Explores, irreverent, the eternal round,346
THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
And Reason wanders wide, till she has heard
The still small voice of Thy revealed word,
Which unfolds mysteries to her darkened sight,
And proves, whatever else is wrong—that God is right.
Several of Dr. Lord’s poems, including “ The Silent Sorrow
of the Enfranchised Slave,” suggested by the obsequies of Presi-
dent Lincoln in Buffalo, and the one entitled “ Kings and
Thrones are Falling,” have attained a much more than local
favor. Of the latter, Mr. Putnam says “it was hailed on both con-
tinents as an embodiment of the spirit of the epoch.” The
temptation is strong to quote at lengthNfrom Dr. Lord’s poetry,
but space will be asked only for the following lines, which not
only illustrate Dr. Lord’s skill as a sonneteer, but constitute a
graceful tribute to a distinguished citizen whose numerous contri-
butions to letters are of a high order :
TO JAMES O. PUTNAM, ESQ.
How often, James, thy thoughts do overleap
The narrow boundary of our working life,
Which seems to thee but an ignoble strife,
Where none do walk upright, but only creep
To their mean ends; a harvest which to reap
Demands a hardened heart and sharpened knife,
A soul with petty, selfish interests rife.
So gifted men repine; yet in the deep
And awful counsels of the Eternal King,
Our daily life doth make our destiny;
For this world’s labors no defilement bring
To him who, faithful in his passing day,
Knows that its fleeting moments ever fling
Their lasting shadows on Eternity.
A volume of Dr. Lord’s lectures on the “ Progress of Civili-
zation and Government, and Other Subjects,” most of them
delivered before the Young Men’s Association of this city, was
published here in 1851. It is a good book to read.
Writing of Dr. Lord recalls another name which should be
included in this review. From 1843 to x^49 Rev- Stephen
R. Smith was pastor of the Universalist Church of this city.
His spirit and zeal aroused Dr. Lord, who preached vigorously
against Universalism. This resulted in a lively and prolongedTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
347
controversy between the rival churches, which, “ though in
midst of summer,” as is naively remarked in a memoir of Mr.
Smith, “called out good houses.” A book of over four hundred
pages, devoted to the, life and labors of Mr. Smith, was published
in Boston in 1852. It was prepared by Thomas J. Sawyer, but
is largely Mr. Smith’s autobiography.
When the Rev. Albert T. Chester, D. D.,* was installed
pastor of the North Church, the sermon was preached by the
Rev. M. La Rue P. Thompson, D. D., then pastor of the First
Church. His sermon was published in pamphlet form, with an
appendix of notes in which the controversial points were elabora-
ted and strengthened. The title of the sermon was “ The Office
of a Bishop.” This drew out from the Rev. Montgomery
Schuyler, then rector of St. John’s, a series of.lectures, preached
to his own congregation, asserting and vindicating the Episco-
pal ideas of church order. These lectures were published here
in a little volume entitled, “The Church: Its Ministry and
Worship.” No sooner had it appeared than Dr. Thompson,
who was a doughty champion of parity as against prelacy, girded
himself for an onslaught upon Schuyler, and within the space of
a very few weeks prepared a volume which bore the same title
that Schuyler had given to his volume—“The Church: Its
Ministry and Worship.” It was a book of between three hun-
dred and four hundred pages, and was a clear and vigorous piece
of writing. Dr. Thompson, in his preface, by way of apology
for the length of his argument, says “he didn’t mean it, and he
couldn’t help it. ” He was a man who was not accustomed to hold
his hand when engaged in controversy; and the evidence of this
is to be seen in many caustic passages of the volume under
notice.
But not all the local writings, even of the early days, were
theological and controversial. Masonry, anti-Masonry, Spirit-
ualism, and Phrenology were subjects of the day fifty years ago
which bred books in many a Western New York town. In 1839
J. Stanley Grimes, a famous disciple of Gall and Spurzheim, and
president of the Western Phrenological Society, sojourned at
Buffalo and published here his “New System of Phrenology.”
*Died Aug. 7, 1892.348
RANDOM NOTES ON
In the same year R. W. Haskins, A. M., brought out here a
“ History and Progress of Phrenology.” He subsequently pub-
lished numerous scientific and philosophical works, a school
text-book on astronomy, critical essays, etc.; he was a man
ahead of his generation ; but the annals of science preserve his
name with honor.* A wave of Fourierism, too, was early
felt. Albert Brisbane, a man of wealth and genius, came
here from Batavia. With his brother George he built the
Arcade,*)* and owned that profitable property for many years.
In 1840 he published a work named “ Social Destiny of
Man; or Association and Reorganization of Industry.” It
is an exhaustive presentation of the doctrines of Fourier.;
any one who tries to read its five hundred pages today will
find it not only exhaustive but exhausting. In 1843 Mr.
Brisbane published a second work, “ Association; or a Concise
Exposition of the Practical Part of Fourier’s Social Science.”
In recent years he was much abroad, making occasional visits to
Buffalo.
Early in the ’3o’s Oliver G. Steele was publishing well-pre-
pared guide-books to Niagara Falls, and other similar works.
From Steele’s press in 1837 came “A Canadian Farmer’s Travels
in the United States,” by Robert Davis. Six years later A. W.
Wilgus published an interesting book entitled “ Letters from
Van Dieman’s Land, written during five years’ imprisonment for
Political Offenses committed in Upper Canada.” The author
was Benjamin Wait, who became practically a resident of Buf-
falo, though his family home was just across the Niagara River.
The “ Rochester Rappings ” brought forth several local pam-
phlets, which are now historical curiosities rather than contribu-
tions to literature.
In that imperial path of letters, the writing of history, Buffa-
lonians have always walked with honor. At the Madisonian
office in Washington, D. C., in 1839, Samuel Wilkeson pub-
lished “ A Concise History of the Commencement, Progress and
Present Condition of the American Colonies in Liberia.” This
now rare work is very valuable as a record of facts relating to
*For more extended notice of Mr. Haskins’s works, see ante, pp. 257-284.
fBurned Dec. 14, 1893. Site now occupied by the Mooney & Brisbane building.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
349
negro emigration from the United States to Liberia, and relates
the first efforts made in that direction under Paul Cuffeein 1815.
Several years later another Buffalo writer turned his attention to
this subject. In 1852 W. L. G. Smith wrote, and Geo. H.
Derby & Co. of this city published, “ Life at the South, or
Uncle Tom’s Cabin as it is, Being Narratives, Scenes, and Inci-
dents in the real Life of the Lowly.’’ Mrs. Stowe’s “ Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” had appeared as a serial in the National Era
in 1851 and ’52. Mr. Smith’s book drew a far happier picture
of negro slave-life in the South than did Mrs. Stowe’s great work.
The Buffalo author’s main idea .was Liberia. “Disinterested
philanthropy,” he wrote, “ looks to the amelioration of all con-
ditions, and the enlightenment of all classes of society; and al-
though the lot of the slave may be regarded as the lowest in the
scale, still the candid-minded in every section of our country,
indulge the hope that the day will yet come when the descend-
ants of Ham will be gathered together in the land of their ances-
tors, and Liberia, in God’s time, take its position among the
independent states of the world.” How times have changed !
W. L. G. Smith was a notable figure in the ranks of Buffalo
authors. He was a well-known attorney here for a number of
years. Besides the work above mentioned he wrote “ The Life
and Times of Lewis Cass,” a bulky octavo of nearly eight hun-
dred pages, published in New York in 1856. He was afterwards
appointed United States Consul to Shanghai, and in 1863 pub-
lished an interesting volume of “Observations on China and the
Chinese,” which he dedicated to the Hon. Lewis Cass.
The names of Ketchum, Turner and Marshall constitute a
trinity of chroniclers whose work is the standard, each in its
field; although in the appreciation of historical perspective, and
the literary use of material, the last-named is immeasurably
superior to the two first mentioned. William Ketchum’s
“ History of Buffalo and the Senecas,” in two volumes, was
published in Buffalo by Rockwell, .Baker & Hill, in 1864. This
work, which was dedicated to the Hon. Millard Fillmore, Presi-
dent of the Buffalo Historical Society, grew out of an historical
notice of the Six Nations of Indians. So attractive did Mr.
Ketchum find the Indian material that he devoted the whole of350
RANDOM NOTES ON
the first volume to it, as well as a considerable part of the second
volume. He brings the history of Buffalo down to the close of
the War of 1812. Several writers have covered the recent years,
none more reliably than Mr. Crisfield Johnson, whose “ Centen-
nial History of Erie County” (1876) is unsurpassed in its class
of histories. Mr. Johnson is also the author of a work entitled
“ The One Great Force.”
O. Turner’s “Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase”
and his history of the Phelps & Gorham Tract cover a period of
local history with which no other narrative so thoroughly deals.
The former work, published here in 1849, *s an authority on
ancient remains, on the Confederated Iroquois, and the transac-
tions of the Holland Company. A brother of the author, Mr.
Chipman P. Turner, formerly of Black Rock, was also a writer of
pamphlets on local history. Unlike Mr. O. Turner, Mr.
Ketchum was long identified with Buffalo as a resident.
Orsamus Holmes Marshall was a historian whose name ranks
with those of Parkman, Schoolcraft and Bancroft. Not that his
work rivalled theirs in scope, but what he did he did as well as
they. He was born in Connecticut in 1813, and died in Buffalo
in 1884. He was admitted to practice law here in 1834, and
was a prominent member of the bar until his relinquishment of
practice in 1867. His son lately said of him to the writer:
“My father was a lawyer, not a professional writer”; yet he
gained a wide reputation as the historian of the aboriginal
inhabitants of Western New York. He could follow an Indian
trail—in musty documents and traditions—as his personal friend,
Red Jacket, could in the woods. He did a welcome service in put-
ting in modern narrative form the records of the early French ex-
plorers, and in correcting their errors. Many of his writings were
prepared for the Buffalo Historical Society. Since his death they
have been collected, and were published in 1887 in book-form
by his son, Mr. Charles D. Marshall, with an introduction by
Mr. William L. Stone. Mr. Marshall’s work is conspicuous alike
for its accuracy and for the charm of its unadorned but pure and
delightful diction.
The historical publications of the late Hon. Lewis F. Allen,
if collected, would make a valuable book. Mr. Allen’s labors asTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
351
originator and editor for forty years of the Short'Horn Herd
Book must have mention. So, too, should his writings on
arboriculture, drainage, and kindred subjects. Here may also
be mentioned Gen. James C. Strong’s book,“ Wah-kee-nah and
her People,” a study of North American Indian customs and
traditions, particularly as observed by the author among the
tribes of the Columbia River; and “The Iroquois and the
Jesuits,” by the Rev. Thomas Donohoe, D. D. (1895.)
It is impossible to speak of the writings of all of our citizens
who have contributed to the literature of local history. The
publications of the Buffalo Historical Society contain valuable
papers by the Hon. Millard Fillmore, the Hon. Lewis F. Allen,
the Hon. James Sheldon, David Gray, William Hodge, Wm.
Clement Bryant, CharlesD. Norton, O. G. Steele, James L. Bar-
ton, Nathaniel Wilgus, the Rev. S.Falk, Joseph Dart, Col. William
A. Bird, Ismar S. Ellison, Guy H. Salisbury and many others
who have made substantial contributions to our local literature.
Miss Jane Meade Welch, William Horace Hotchkiss, Frederick
L. Shepard and others in recent years, have contributed carefully
prepared historical and descriptive articles to the magazines.
There are many books by Buffalo writers on events connected
with the Civil War. Capt. Orton S. Clark wrote a “ Complete
History of the 116th Regt., N. Y. Yols. ” ; Maj. George H.
Stowits chronicled, in a well-illustrated volume, the “ History
of the 100th Regt., N. Y. Vols.” ; “What I Saw and Suffered
in Rebel Prisons,” is a graphic and pathetic narrative, written
by Sergt. Daniel G. Kelly, of the 24th N. Y. Cavalry. Kelly
was an East Aurora boy; his book was published in 1866, the
Rev. Anson G. Chester, then military agent at Buffalo, furnish-
ing the introduction. A number of patriotic songs by Sergt.
Kelly are not the least valuable part of his little book.
Here too should be mentioned Gen. A. W. Bishop’s “Loyr
alty on the Frontier,” incidents and adventures in the Rebellion
on “The Border.” At the time of the publication of this vol-
ume, which appeared in St. Louis in 1863, the author, now a
well-known attorney of Buffalo, was Lieut.-Colonel of the 1st Ar-
kansas Cavalry Volunteers. Among Gen. Bishop’s more recent
publications, special mention should be made of his political352
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pamphlet entitled “ What is the Situation Now?” in which he
replies at length to the statements contained in a work entitled
“Why the Solid South?” complied by Hilary A. Herbert,
afterwards Secretary of the Navy. . The latter work is really an
account of affairs in the South during the Reconstruction period,
written from the Southern point of view. The civil reorganiza-
tion of the South after the War was a work calling, in its way, for
patriotism and even individual bravery not inferior to the quali-
ties demanded by warfare. Many a man who to the Southerner
was a much-reviled “ Carpet-bagger ” was as devoted in his
loyalty to country in the discharge of duties incident to civil
reconstruction—duties usually undertaken amid countless em-
barrassments—as were the generals who led our troops to battle,
and is equally entitled to grateful remembrance. In the work
“What is the Situation Now?” Gen. Bishop replies to some of
the statements in the Southern-compiled book, so far as they
apply to the State of Arkansas. He was Adjutant-General of
that State from the time of the organization of a loyal Govern-
ment in 1864 till 1867 and was afterwards president of the
Arkansas Industrial University, one of the monuments of the
despised “ Carpet-bag ” rule. The nature of his answer to Gov.
Fishback of Arkansas in “Why the Solid South?” may be
judged by a single reference. Mr. Fishback referred to the
economy of the “ Democratic ” Government of Arkansas from
April 18, 1864, to October 1, 1866. Gen. Bishop says:	“ The
Government of the State of Arkansas, for the period ‘from April
18, 1864, to October 1, 1866’—Mr. Fishback’s two and one-half
years—was not under Democratic rule at all. It was the Gov-
ernment of the Union men of the State, and was organized under
and in pursuance of President Lincoln’s proclamation of Decem-
ber 8, 1863, for the reorganization of Civil Governments in the
seceded States.” The work has an importance far beyond its
size, in that it shows the unreliability of the “ Solid South”
book, which was particularly addressed to Northern readers.
In the holiday season of 1886-7 was published an admirable
book, entitled “ Recollections of a Private in the Army of the
Potomac.” W. D. Howells compared it to Tolstoi’s war
stories. The author wus a well-known “Buffalo Boy,” FrankTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.	353:
Wilkeson. J. Harrison Mills, soldier, artist and author, wrote
a voluminous work, entitled “ Chronicles of the 21st Regiment,
New York Volunteers,” in the ranks of which regiment the
author was wounded. His book, published in 1863, has had
several editions.
One of the most thrilling episodes connected with slavery,
was the killing of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy by a pro-slavery
mob, at Alton, 111., on the night of Nov. 7, 1837. Mr. Henry
Tanner of this city was not only an intimate associate of Mr.
Lovejoy, but was an eye-witness of the tragedy. The terrible
story is thrillingly told in Mr. Tanner’s book, “The Martyr-
dom of Lovejoy,” published in Chicago in 1881.
James K. Hosmer, A. M., late professor of English and
German literature in the Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.,
now Librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library, is a son of the
late Rev. Dr. Hosmer of this city, whose literary work has
already been noted. The son grew up in Buffalo, and is by no
means a stranger here now. He graduated at Harvard in 1855,
and entered the ministry, but on the outbreak of the Civil War
went to the front as a private in the 52nd Regiment, Massachu-
setts Volunteers. He remained with that regiment, in the
ranks, declining a place on the staff of Gen. Banks, and accept-
ing, as a friend has written, “ no preferment save a place in the
forefront of peril, as one of the corporals intrusted with the
defense of the colors of his regiment. ’ ’ This service ushered
him into a career in letters. His first book, “ The Color
Guard ” (1864), is one of the best War books ever published.
Its popularity is attested by the worn condition of several copies
in the Buffalo Library. The Boston Advertiser called it “the
counterpart of Dana’s ‘ Two Years Before the Mast.’ ”	“ The
Thinking Bayonet” appeared in 1865. He has also written a
“Life of Samuel Adams,” in Houghton, Mifflin & Co.’s excel-
lent “American Statesmen ” series ; a forerunner of this work
was Prof. Hosmer’s “Samuel Adams, the Man of the Town-
Meeting,” published in the Johns Hopkins University series of
“Studies in History and Political Science.” In 1879 Prof.
Hosmer brought out “A Short History of German Literature.”
Among his more recent works are a “ History of the Jews,” in
23354
RANDOM NOTES ON
Putnam’s “ Stories of the Nations ” series; a biography of Sir
Henry Vane; uHow Thankful was Bewitched,” a romance of
“ Queen Anne’s War and “ The Life of Thomas Hutchinson,
Royal Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.”
To the list of Buffalo’s War authors should be added the names
of Cyrus K. Remington (author of “A Record of Battery I.,
otherwise known as Wiedrich’s Battery,” etc., “ The Ship Yard
of the Griffon,” etc.), and C. W. Boyce, whose chief work is
“A Brief History of the 28th Regiment, New York State Volun-
teers,” etc., published in 1896.
Several Buffalo writers have won distinction in peculiar fields
of literary research. Edward P. Vining, the son of George
Vining, a former music-teacher of this city, is the author of a
scholarly and laborious work, entitled “An Inglorious Colum-
bus,” published in 1885. In this big book the author gives
evidence that Hwui Shan and a party of Buddhist monks from
Afghanistan discovered America in the Vth Century, A. D. Mr.
Vining is also the author of “The Mystery of Hamlet—an
Attempt to Solve an Old Problem.” This work, which is ded-
icated to H. H. Furness, the eminent Shakspearean scholar,
argues that the feminine element in Hamlet's nature is the secret
of his mysterious behavior. Buffalo has another Shakespearean
student, Mr. George Alfred Stringer, whose compilations,
“Shakespeare’s Draughts from the Living Water,” and “Leisure
Moments in Gough Square,” are well known. The latter book
is a collection of the beauties and quaint conceits of Johnson’s
Dictionary, and is prefaced by an agreeable essay on the Great
Cham of Literature.
If we turn to biography, we again find Buffalo furnishing
both subjects and authors. The best biography of the late
President Fillmore was written by Ivory Chamberlain of this
city. The best biography of President Cleveland, at least in
some essential respects, was written in 1884, by the late Hon.
William Dorsheimer, a former resident of this city. Mr. Dor-
sheimer had known Mr. Cleveland ever since the latter first came
to Buffalo, and was well acquainted with the events of his life
here. Upon his title-page Mr. Cleveland is described as “ the
model citizen, eminent jurist, and efficient Governor of theTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
355
Empire State/’ and Mr. Dorsheimer is designated as “the
bosom friend and chosen biographer” of Mr. Cleveland. Mr.
Dorsheimer was a strong and picturesque writer. Mr. Deshler
Welch, a Buffalo man of reputation in metropolitan journalism,
has also written a creditable biography of President Cleveland.
“The Life and Times of the Rt. Rev. John Timon, D. D.,
first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo,” by
Charles G. Deuther, is in all respects a Buffalo book. Bishop
Timon was Bishop Ryan’s predecessor. He organized the
Catholic church in this city, and spent the last twenty years of
his life here. Mr. Deuther prepared his biography with much
thoroughness and accuracy, and gave to his work considerable
literary quality. The book was published by the author in
Buffalo in 1870, and remains the standard life of this eminent
prelate, as the Rev. Patrick Cronin’s “ Memorial of the Life and
Labors of Rt. Rev. Stephen Vincent Ryan,” etc. (1896) is the
final and satisfactory life of the second Catholic Bishop of
Buffalo.	’
Mr. George J. Bryan has contributed to local history and
biography in his volume entitled “ Biographies and Journalism,”
published in 1886. In 1849 Mr. Bryan wrote and O. G. Steele
published a “ Life of George P. Barker.”
Beyond question the most distinguished author whom Buffalo
has claimed as a resident was Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe.
His literary labors extended over sixty years. Appleton’s
“Cyclopaedia of American Biography” enumerates twenty
works of which he is author or editor, and the list there given is
incomplete, for since that sketch was prepared he published a
course of college lectures entitled “ Institutes of Christian His-
tory,” and perhaps other works not now recalled.
As an author, Bishop Coxe was distinguished first of all as a
poet; second, as a historian, an expositor and expounder of
doctrinal truths y third, as a controversialist, especially in refuta-
tion of the claims and arguments of Roman Catholicism. He
published several volumes of poems before receiving ordination,
in 1841. One of these, “Athwold,” appeared in 1838, and
a few years since was again brought out in an enlarged edition
after suppression for forty years. In 1840 he published his best-356 ,	RANDOM NOTES ON
known volume of poems, the “ Christian Ballads,’’ reprinted in
Oxford, and running through many editions since. In a recent
revised edition the author says that the Ballads “ were produced
and published for ephemeral circulation, and with no anticipa-
tion of the favor with which they have been constantly demanded
in successive editions in Europe and America.” Again he says
that they were not designed as religious poems in the proper
sense, but they were intended to show that there are natural rela-
tions between genuine religion and good taste. There is much
interest in his account of the purpose and reception of this work:
It is gratifying to observe the progress of our civilization and the improve-
ment of the popular taste in art; but the author must beg his readers to remem-
ber that many things which are now familiar to everybody in America, were
wholly unknown among us when these Ballads were produced. Their author
was obliged to imagine much that may now be seen in almost every part of the
land. When he wrote them there was not a church in the country which
could sustain any other than the most moderate pretensions to architectural
correctness in design or decoration. He had never seen more than a few panes
of stained glass in a church window, nor heard a complete chime of bells; and
there was not to be seen on this continent, so far as he is informed, an open
roof or a well-defined chancel, or genuine aisles, or a nave with a clere-story.
Floral decorations" were almost unknown, and children were not provided
with a single carol. It has often been asserted by generous critics, like the
late Dr. Croswell, that the publication of the Ballads contributed largely to
introduce the change in popular taste; but the author is well aware that his
own delight in such things was the product, in a great measure, of what Dr.
Croswell and Bishops Doane and Hopkins and Dr. Muhlenberg, with others
that might be named, had been doing before. From the progressive future he
anticipates a great reduction in the popularity of his verses. They will fail to
please when what is now agreeable in fancy becomes common in fact; and it
is the height of his ambition with regard to them, that they may yet do some-
thing to hasten the time when they will be quite superfluous.
The Ballads have gained rather than lost popularity. Their
place in American literature has long been secure. The first
edition enjoyed an entirely unexpected success. It brought to
the writer, he tells us, kindly greetings and pleasant letters from
many parts of the world. In foreign travel it opened his way
to cottages and to castles; he found it on the shelVes of Eton
boys, and in the rooms of grave fellows of the Universities. In
Ireland he was presented with a curious series of imitations ofTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
357
“ Dreamland,” some grave and some comical; and of Scotland
and Wales he owed some of his happiest recollections to inci-
dents connected with the circulation of the Ballads, in several
forms. To Count Tasca, the eminent poet and patriot of
Northern Italy, he was indebted for the introduction of several
of them to his countrymen, in spirited translations; and the
Count de Montalembert has unwittingly connected a stanza
from one of them with a work which will be ever memorable in
the history of the French Empire. In his famous philippic
“ Un Debat sur VInde au Parlement Anglais,” the Count intro-
duced a historical relation, carrying with it a stinging reflection
on the contrast between the state of things in England and in
France, concluding with a quotation of Bishop Coxe’s stirring
lines:
“ Now pray we for our country,
That England long may be
The holy and the happy,
And the gloriously free! ”
The Count told how he had heard 40,000 English children
sing a song of which the refrain was a literal version of Bishop
Coxe’s verses, little imagining that this refrain was taught them by
,an American, “ whose affection for the Motherland might have
furnished the French Emperor with another salutary reflection
upon the power of English Christianity and civilization over
many who owe no subscription to the English Crown.1 ’
Of the poems included in the Christian Ballads, several are
widely current among Christians of many denominations. The
“ Hymn of Boyhood/ * “St. Sacrament/* and “ The Chimes of
England ’ * are among the favorites; while no Christmas composi-
tion rivals in favor the “ Carol ” beginning
Carol, carol, Christians,
Carol joyfully;
Carol for the coming
Of Christ’s nativity.
“ The Ladye Ctiace,” a ballad, edited by Francis Philip Nash
(editions of 1837 and 1877), aimed, for the first time apparently
in our country, to carry the reader back to the fields of old Eng-
lish history. It was an enthusiasm inspired by Bishop Percy’s358
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“ Reliques ” that led. the author of “The Ladye Chace” to
attempt a song of Alfred, only to relinquish it for this more
dramatic story of Edgar. The poem is founded upon the facts
of King Edgar’s marriage with Elfreda.
Of Bishop Coxe’s prose works, several are famous in the history
of church literature. His “Apology for the English Bible ” (1854)
ultimately led to the suppression of new and crude revisions
which had been brought out by the American Bible Society.
“ Anglican Orders ” was a series of papers originally contributed
to the Paris journal Union Chretienne; “An Open Letter to
Pius IX.” (1869), in answer to the brief convoking the Vatican
Council, was translated into many languages, and had wide cir-
culation in Europe; “ Z’ Episc dp at de /’ Occident" published
in Paris in 1872, was a new presentation of the history of the
Church of England, and a refutation of Roman Catholic attacks.
In 1873, collaboration with Bishop Wilberforce and others,
he engaged in a serial publication, issued at Oxford, in defense
of Anglo-Catholic principles against either extreme. He took
an active part in opposition to the New Testament revision.
Among his many writings should be mentioned, if by title only,
“ Sermons on Doctrine and Duty” (1855), “Thoughts on the
Services” (1859), and “ Apollos; or, the Way of God” (1873).
Besides these, and several other volumes of verse, he published
many tracts, editions and translations of foreign works, lectures,
pamphlets on special occasions, etc.
A unique product of his pen is “ The Bible Rhyme : a Lesson
for Old and Young,” published in Philadelphia by Lippincott
and in Buffalo by Martin Taylor, in 1873. Here is a sample of
this easily-memorized version of Scriptural truth :
Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Tell what Christ did for Adam’s race;
The Acts the Holy Ghost make known;
The Romans how we’re saved by grace.
Among the later literary labors of Bishop Coxe was the
editing, with large additions and notes, of an American edition
of the Edinburgh “ Translations of the Ante-Nicene Fathers,”
edited by Drs. Roberts and Donaldson.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
359
Several resident Catholic clergymen have combated Bishop
Coxe. The late Bishop Stephen Vincent Ryan of the Diocese
of Buffalo, on one memorable occasion entered the lists. His
work is entitled : “ Claims of a Protestant Episcopal Bishop to
Apostolical Succession and Valid Orders Disproved, with Various
Misstatements of Catholic Faith and Numerous Charges Against
the Church and Holy See Corrected and Refuted.” This work
was published in 1880.
In an article like the present one, there is no offense in
allowing extremes to meet. It was all very well for Bishop Coxe
to put Bible truths in rhyme, but where shall we class an author
who produces a city directory in verse ? Such a bard there was
in the humble person of the Hon. James Torrington Spencer
Lidstone, who came to Buffalo, bringing his name with him,
about 1850. In 1851 he published, under “ universal patronage,”
“ The Queen of the West,” announcing himself, with probable
truthfulness, to be “the first that ever attempted to publish a
poetical directory for any town or city, in any age or clime of
the world.” A few samples are absolutely necessary for an
appreciation of this work. Under the address of a plumber’s
firm we read :
This eminent firm all others jiow surpass
As house-plumbers, fitters-up of gas.
Gas fixtures here of every style and grade,
They have on hand or are to order made.
He paid his respects to many citizens in rhyme; declared the
Hon. E. G. Spaulding
As good a man as ever lived along
Lake Erie’s realm, or graced a poet’s song,
and “wound his horn ” for David Bell in this inspiring strain:
Vulcan in Norton Street doth dwell,
Here all his powers reside,
And Neptune gets from Mr. Bell
His works to stem the tide.
The Hon. J. T. S. L. seems to have been unable to “hire a
hall,” for his muse complains :360	RANDOM NOTES ON
I’ve pealed my anthems thro’ your Western skies,
And sung your worth and public enterprise,^
But candor prompts the orator to say
That his was disappointment from the day
He set his foot upon your shores, to know
You had no public halls in Buffalo.
Once more only will we exhibit this later Ossian of “the
teeming West ” in the act of pealing his anthem. Hear him as
he sings of that familiar Main Street landmark, “ Gothic Hall ” :
Hail, wonder of the West! thou Gothic Hall,
That for classic splendor rivals all
The buildings reared, or towers that sent
Their heights to heaven, from off this continent.
I thought assembled Congress bid thee rise
Instead of private din and enterprise.
Thy architecture, grandest and the best
Of all the regions of the teeming West;
In this emporium pyramids of clothes arise
Made in the world’s best manufactories.
Speak out, my muse, in strong and truthful lays
All made within the last 3 months or 90 days.
Gothic Hall has long been o’er topped by greater buildings,
but no singer has yet o’ertopped the author of Buffalo’s only
poetical directory.
There is rarely to be met with, nowadays, a little volume,
published here in 1854, entitled “ Poems written during His
Early Professional Years, by the Hon. Jesse Walker,” with a
brief notice of the author by the Rev. Montgomery Schuyler.
Jesse Walker was an early Judge of Erie County, a native of
Vermont, who in 1835 moved to this city, where he died in
1854. His verses were mostly written during the first years of
his professional life; though not of a high order, they never
descended to doggerel, and usually adorned and preserved some
historic incident or Indian romance. One of Judge Walker’s
poems is “ Tehoseroron ” (the Indian name for Big Buffalo
Creek), beginning:
O beautiful and softly-flowing river,
The gentlest of the torrent’s daughters,
Departed hath the forest-child forever
From the green margin of thy waters.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
361
And now the green margin has departed too. “ Loves of
the Lakes ” was a poetical address spoken by Judge Walker at
the opening of the Buffalo Theater, June 22, 1835. Other of
his compositions best entitled to remembrance are “ The Hero
of the Plague” and the “Self-Devoted,” verses full of noble
sentiment, gracefully expressed.
The poets, like the poor, are always with us—often the poor
poets seem to predominate. But Buffalo can lay claim to an
astonishingly large number of writers whose work, if not great,
has been genuine—true sentiment, purely expressed. Probably
in no other field of letters are there so many local names worthy
of mention and remembrance. “Beautiful Snow” has been
claimed as a Buffalo production, the work of Henry W. Faxon,
for some years city editor of the Republic. Faxon's friends remem-
ber that he greatly admired the poem, and one of them used to
relate how Faxon on one occasion produced a manuscript copy
of it from his hat, and recited the lines with ever-to-be-remem-
bered fervor; but in lack of more positive proof, the writer
concludes that James W. Watson, and not the Buffalo genius,
wrote the famous poem.
Buffalo’s first literary journal, the Inquirer, fostered the
muse; but more generous nursing was given by the Western
Literary Messenger, a “family magazine of literature, science,
art, morality, and general intelligence,” which was begun as a
semi-monthly quarto sheet in 1842. Jesse Clement was its
editor from the start, and contributed some of the best things to
its columns ; especially good were Mr. Clement’s early poems.
A work which he brought out in 1851, “Noble Deeds of
American Women,” with an introduction by Mrs. Sigourney,
was (and is) widely popular. At first J. S. Chadbourne was
associated with Mr. Clement as editor of the Messenger, the
office of publication being at No. 159 Main Street. The
Messenger flourished for many years, developing into a weekly,
and finally into an octavo monthly, under Mr. Clement’s care.
It was the most creditable literary periodical, all things con-
sidered, that Western New York has ever supported. Even in
its earlier years it numbered among its original contributors N.
P. Willis, Alfred B. Street, J. T. Headley, Mrs. Child, John S.362
RANDOM NOTES ON
C. Abbott, J. K. Paulding, James T. Fields, and C. P. Cranch.
It was worthily followed, in a more restricted field, by the
Home, established in 1856 by Mrs. H. E. G. Arey, published by
E. F. Beadle. This publication, “ a fireside monthly companion
and guide for the wife, mother, the sister and the daughter,”
maintained a high standard from the first. Mrs. Arey, a woman
of thorough culture and strong poetic gift, now resides in
Cleveland.
In 1856 Mrs. Mary A. Dennison, then editing the Lady's
Enterprise, and also connected with the Olive Branch, of
Boston, came to Buffalo to reside, her husband, the Rev, C. W.
Dennison, having been chosen pastor of the Niagara Street
Baptist Church.* No one welcomed Mrs. Dennison more cor-
dially than the editor of the Home, for which her pen was soon
enlisted. In 1859 Mrs. Arey and Mrs. C. H. Gildersleeve be-
came the editors of the Home Monthly, which was the Home
enlarged. Notable among contributors were Mrs. Sigourney,
Virginia F. Townsend, Prof. J. W. Barker (killed by a street-car
on Niagara Street a few years ago), Mrs. Dennison, and Miss
Mary A. Ripley. The poems of Mrs. Arey and Miss Ripley
have been gathered into volumes.
Mention of Mrs. Gildersleeve must include one interesting
reminiscence relating to local authorship, recalled by John
Wallace Hutchinson in his account of that famous singing family
entitled “ The Story of the Hutchinsons.” These singers, who
were frequently in Buffalo in ante-Rebellion days, made popular
the country over the song, “ Mrs. Lofty and I.” In his book
John W. Hutchinson speaks of this song as though it were first
sung by the troupe ,at Madison, Wis., but soon after. Abby
Hutchinson, who was then in Buffalo, brought it out and made
it popular. Judson Hutchinson composed the melody. “ The
words were placed on my melodeon,” writes John, “and while
he stood at my side with his violin and made the tune, I accom-
panied him. The words of the’song were written by Mrs. Gil-
dersleeve Longstreet of Buffalo.” This was in 1857. Mrs.
Longstreet is remembered by many old residents as Mrs. C. H.
* On Niagara Square. From i88i-’89 the building was known as the First Con-
gregational Church; it is now called the People’s Church.—Ed.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
363
Gildersleeve. Her husband was for some years principal of No.
io School, and was a man of literary taste and skill as a writer.
In recent years Mrs. Gildersleeve Longstreet made her home in
New York City. Many readers know her through her capital
War story, “ Remy St. Remy, or the Boy in Blue.” A few
years ago she published a book entitled “ Social Etiquette in
New York.” Many of an earlier generation, even in Buffalo,
have no doubt sung that now-old song without knowing that a
Buffalo woman wrote it for beautiful Abby Hutchinson to sing.
The first stanza is as follows :
Mrs. Lofty keeps a carriage, so do 1;
She has dapple grays to draw it, none have I;
She’s no prouder with her coachman than am I,
With my blue-eyed, laughing baby, trundling by.
I hide his face, lest she should see the cherub boy and envy me.
Buffalo has had many song-writers, whose work deserves con-
sideration in a paper specially devoted to so pleasant a subject.
Was not the city made famous half a century and more ago by
Ed. P. Christey’s “ Buffalo Gals ” ! During the past fifty years
many a clever Buffalo pen has made life more cheerful with its
songs ; none more conspicuously and usefully so than that untir-
ingly wielded by the late Everett L. Baker, teacher of music in
our schools since 1850 (regularly from 1863 to 1895). He was
both poet and musician. His first school song was given to
School No. 10 in 1850; an uncounted number followed it.
When he died one appreciative chronicler wrote: “Mr. Baker
is believed to have written or composed more school songs to
gladden the youthful hearts and minds than any other man.”
His field of authorship extended beyond this, and includes many
anthems and other sacred pieces, and a graded series of music
books, extensively used in the public schools of the country.
But we were speaking of dead-and-gone literary journals of
Buffalo; and this is as good a place as any to mention—and they
must be dismissed with mere mention—the Earnest Christian,
begun in i860, B. T. Roberts, A. M., editor; the Herald'of the
Truth, begun by W. T. Horner, in 1862 ; Our Leisure Mo-
ments, begun in 187Q, edited by Albert C. Ives and F, S. Dellen-
baugh; the Globe, an illustrated magazine of literary record and364
RANDOM NOTES ON
criticism, begun in 1874, with W. C. Cornwell as editor and
cartoonist, and A. M. Sangster, A. N. Samuels, and other local
artists as contributors; Every Saturday, a weekly journal edited
by Deshler Welch, was born in 1878, aimed high, missed the
mark, and died in 1879; Bohemia, by H. W. Raymond and
A. G. Bigelow; the Modern Age, an eclectic conducted by
James S. Metcalfe; and the Wyoming Literary Monthly, after-
wards called Literature, published by C. W. Moulton and C. A.
Wenborne, shared the common fate. Still others there have
been, of demise so recent that it were better not to particularize,
lest fresh grief be stirred anew. Carrie F. Judd’s Triumphs of
Faith, begun in 1881, Queries, and Our Record were enter-
prises which found prosperity. The latter journal, published by
the managers of the Home for the Friendless, was begun in 1869,
Miss Gardner being its first editor. Among the contributors to
Our Record have been Mary E. Mixer, whose writings on histor-
ical and miscellaneous subjects are of merit, and Julia F. Snow,
one of the few residents of this city who has the gift of writing
worthily and attractively for children. Other Buffalonians who
have in recent years won success as writers for the young are
Margaret E. Carr, Mrs. L. A. Bull and Dr. A. L. Benedict.
In speaking of the early literary enterprises of Buffalo several
writers have been mentioned who were members of Buffalo’s
once famous literary coterie, the “Nameless.” In this club,
which was started about 1850, and flourished for a dozen or more
years, were many entitled to enrollment among the authors of
Buffalo: Jerome B. Stillson, James N. Johnston, Wm. Clement
Bryant, Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Gildersleeve, Charles D. Marshall,
Josiah Letch worth, William P. Letch worth, and other loyers and
patrons of letters ; Guy H. Salisbury,—a name and memory, as
was said in an obituary of him, September 5, 1869, ‘4 invested
with something of the charm that lingers behind the gentle
‘Elia’”; Charles E. Morse, who in his best days wrote songs
which read like some of Moore’s Irish ballads; John Harrison
Mills, of whom James N. Johnston, president of the club in
1865, wrote: “ He seems equally at home in sculpture, poesy
and painting. His bust of Abraham Lincoln, his poem of
‘Booths,’ and his twin pictures, ‘A Dream of Life,’ each areTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
365
masterpieces of conception and composition/* Of the ladies in
the Nameless were Miss Mary A. Ripley (to whose memory the
Ripley memorial library at the Women’s Educational and Indus-
trial Union is a worthy monument), for a quarter of a century
Buffalo’s most beloved school-teacher, the author of “ Exercises
in Analysis and Parsing,” which has had several editions, and of
a volume of poems which includes that patriotic gem (of which
Frank Wilkeson was the unnamed boy-soldier), 441 thought the
Country Needed Men and Amanda T. Jones, one of the most
gifted of our local writers, whose published works include “Ulah,
and Other Poems’.’ (1861), “Poems” (1867), and “A Prairie
Idyl and Other Poems ” (1882).
William B. Wright is a name dear to many a Buffalonian.
44 He was the most of a man who ever lived here ! ” said recently,
one who knew him well. Mr. Wright was a physician here for
some years, and later taught languages in the State Normal
School—and an ideal teacher he was, too. He died some years
ago at Atlanta. In 1868 he published 44 Highland Rambles,”
following it in 1873 with “ The Brook and other Poems” ; not
pretentious verse, only
Chance stalks of Song, for which no ploughshare ripped
The belly of the glebe, of which the seed
No planter measuring out his careful pace
Sowed through the chinks of the quick-swinging palm,
But rather random-strewn by grace of wind
On pastures where the Fancy loved to browse.
Of David Gray as a poet, entirely adequate tribute and record
will be found in the two-volume publication of his 44 Life and
Letters,” edited by J. N. Larned. The working years of Mr.
Gray’s life were given to editorial work on the Courier. He
had a high ideal of newspaper work, and gave freely of his
strength, of body and mind, to meet its exacting demands. Yet
he found time, for he had the gift, to write as good poetry as
any Buffalonian has .written. Mr. James F. Gluck has pub-
lished a memorial of Mr. Gray, a paper originally prepared for
the Historical Society.
The Alice Cary of Buffalo is Carrie F. Judd (Mrs. Mont-366
RANDOM NOTES ON
gomery) for years the devoted promulgator of the society called
“ Faith Cure. ” She has published two or three volumes of poetry,
one novel, “ Zaida Eversey, or Life Two-fold,” and much evan-
gelical literature. The animating principle of her life inspires all
of her work ; but her verse has merit aside from its exalted moral
tone. Her works have had many editions in many languages*
Her first volume of poems, “ Lilies from the Yale of Thought”
(1878), was written between her 14th and 19th birthdays.
Many another local writer of verse must be dismissed with
the mere naming. A cyclopaedia of Buffalo poetry should in-
clude, besides the work of those named, that of Celia Sealey
(“Echoes from the Garret,” 1861), Mary J. McColl (“Bide a
Wee and Other Poems,” 1880), Mary L. Hall (“Live Coals,”
1878), Emily B. Lord, Mrs. L. N. Todrig, Harriet E. Benedict,
Mrs. Emily Thatcher Bennett, Antoinette Haven, Matilda
Stewart, Charlotte L. Seaver, Katherine E. Conway, Agnes
Shalloe, Mrs. James F. Gluck and Julia Ditto Young. Mrs.
Bennett (nee Benton) passed her childhood here. Her literary
work^ which began with the writing of verses in a Buffalo
school, includes many poems and essays on Masonic, natural
history, juvenile, and other topics. For years she was a
valued contributor to the Independent, the Christian Union,
the Masonic Review, Sunday-school and other publica-
tions. Few, if any, local writers have deserved warmer praise
than that given by Edmund Clarence Stedman to the work of
Miss Annie R. Annan. “ Bessie Chandler,” whose verse, praised
by Howells, lends charm to many a page of the Century, St.
Nicholas, and other publications, is the talented wife of Mr.
Leroy Parker, a well-known attorney of this city.
There have been, and still are, many writers of good verse
among the men of Buffalo, as citations made in this article have
already proved. Augustus Radcliffe Grote, a former Director
of the Museum of Natural Sciences, contributed to the Atlantic
Monthly, Evolution, and other literary and scientific publications.
In 1882 at the Cheswick Press, London, was published a sumptu-
ous little parchment-bound volume entitled “Rip Van Winkle,
a Sun Myth and Other Poems,” by Mr. Grote. The principalTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
367
poem uses the thread of the story of Rip Van Winkle to connect
reflections on the various stages of human life as influenced by
the seasons, by youth and old age. It first appeared in Evolution
in 1877. The “ Poems and Swedish Translations” by Dr.
Frederick Peterson, which appeared in 1883, during his resi-
dence here, are exquisite specimens of idyllic verse. The Rev.
J. Hazard Hartzell, formerly of Buffalo, in 1884 published his
collected poems under the title “ Wanderings on Parnassus.”
Thomas S. Chard published a volume of verse, including
“Across the Sea,” “ The Seven Sleepers,” and “ A Legend of
St. John and the Blessed Vale.” The Rev. Anson G. Chester
is a writer whose verse has found favor with Scribners Monthly,
(predecessor of the Century Magazine) and other desirable
media. James W. Ward, author of the descriptive text for
Sangster’s “ Niagara,” perpetrated several years ago an amusing
production, “The Song of Higher-water.”	“ That it is after
‘ Hiawatha,’ ” apologizes the author, in his preface to the New-
York edition (1868), “is apparent enough; as a matter of fact,
just three days after, that length of time having intervened be-
tween the appearance of that charming and popular poem and
the reading of this production to some of the author’s friends.”
Mr. Ward was then residing in Cincinnati, the locality of the
events relating in his poem, which narrates a thrilling episode
not infrequent
In the town where swine are slaughtered.
The Rev. Patrick Cronin, editor of the Catholic Union, has
written many sterling poems; so has Joseph O’Connor, formerly
of the Courier, now editor of the Enquirer; while the names of
Arthur W. Austin, Allen G. Bigelow, Walter Storrs Bigelow, H.
Chandler, the Rev. Benjamin Copeland, George Hibbard, Henry
R. Howland, William McIntosh, Robert Cameron Rogers, the
Hon. Rowland B. Mahany and Irving Browne cannot be omitted.
Mr. Browne’s learning and versatility have made him the author
not only of much clever verse and many delightful essays, but
of erudite law-books as well. One of them, entitled “ Elements
of the Law of Bailments and Common Carriers,” has the follow-
ing wise and witty dedication :368
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TO CALIPH OMAR.
Omar, who burned (if thou didst burn)
The Alexandrian tomes,
I would erect to thee an urn
Beneath Sophia’s domes.
Would that thy exemplary torch
Might bravely blaze again,
And many manufactories scorch
Of book-inditing men!
Especially I’d have thee choke
Law libraries in sheep,
WTith fire derived from ancient Coke,
And sink in ashes deep.
Destroy the sheep—don’t-save my own—
I weary to the cram,
The misplaced diligence I’ve shown—
But kindly spare my Lamb.
And spare, oh, spare this suppliant book
Against a time of need;
Hide it away in humble nook
To serve for legal seed.
The man who writes but hundred pages
Where thousands went before,
Deserves the thanks of weary sages,
And Omar should adore.
It is said that this dedication so pleased Judge Bennett, Dean
of the Boston Law School, that he offered, and Mr. Browne
accepted, the desirable position of lecturer in that school, made
vacant by the death of Charles Theodore Russell, a post which
Mr. Browne’s many years of service as law lecturer abundantly
qualified him to fill. Mr. Browne is also librarian of the Buffalo
Law Library; it was recently recorded of him that he had
“ compiled, edited and written more than two hundred law
books.”*
* For further account of some local verse-makers, see “ The Poets and Poetry of
Buffalo,” edited by Ina Russelle Warren, being Vol. VI., No. i of “The Magazine of
Poetry,” Buffalo, n. d. (1895)—Ed.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
369
It is not possible—and if it were possible, it would not be
profitable—to write of all the romancers of Buffalo. A few of the
more notable will suffice. The fame of Anna Katharine Green
(Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) rests not alone upon her novels, but upon her
poems as well. In the common acceptation of the term Miss
Green—to use her maiden name, which she retains for all her
literary work—is probably the most 4 4 popular ” writer who has
ever lived in Buffalo, not excepting Mark Twain, whose short
residence and journalistic career in this city entitle him to at
least remembrance in this review. She was born in Brooklyn,
in a house opposite Plymouth Church. Her father, an attorney
well remembered here, came to Buffalo when she was a child, the
family home being on Pearl Street between Swan and Seneca.
In evidence of her early literary predilection it is related that
when eleven years old Miss Green and a playmate wrote a paper
called 44 The Lily of the Valley,” the privilege of reading which
was extended to their schoolmates at five cents a turn. A copy
of that early production is now cherished by the playmate of
former days, a well-known lady of this city. Miss Green’s first
mature efforts at authorship were the poems bound in the volume
called 44 The Defense of the Bride.” This work did not attract
particular attention and the author turned her attention to
fiction, selecting the kind in which plot and situation predom-
inate, perhaps because of her love for the solution of mathemat-
ical problems. 44 The Leavenworth Case,” which appeared in
1878, at once found great favor both in this country and Europe.
Its author had raised the sensational detective story to a literary
level, and found her reward in a wide audience of cultured
readers. 44A Strange Disappearance” was published in 1879,
and 4 4 The Sword of Damocles ” in 1881. A volume of her poems,
edited by Rossiter Johnson, appeared in 1882 and was well
received. 44 X. Y. Z.” and 44 Hand and Ring” followed in
1883, 44 The Mill Mystery ” in 1886, and 44 7 to 12 ” in 1887.
44Risifi’s Daughter,” a dramatic poem—considered by the
author her best literary work—was also published in 1887, in
which year the author returned to Buffalo with her husband and
children, and here her home has since been. 44 Behind Closed
Doors ’ ’ and others yet more recent, are widely familiar. Sev-
24370
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eral of her books have been translated and had many editions in
various languages, “ The Leavenworth Case” and “ Hand and
Ring ’ ’ leading in popularity.
Among our other writers of fiction, past and present, should
be noted Mrs. E. B. Perkins, formerly Susan Chestnutwood,
whose successful novel, “ Malbrook,” was published by Carleton
in New York and S. Low & Sons in London, in 1871. This,
and her second story, “ Honor Bright,” published, in Buffalo in
1883, have well established her reputation. “ Doctor Ben, an
Episode in the Life of a Fortunate Unfortunate,” appeared in
Osgood’s “ Round Robin Series ” in 1882. The pseudonym of
“ Democritus, Jr.,” is said to stand for the Rev. Orlando With-
erspoon, a former pastor of St. John’s Church. “ Bond and
Free,” a tale of slave times, is by James H. W. Howard, late
editor of the State Journal at Harrisburg, Pa. Mr. Howard
passed his boyhood in this city, and was a pupil in the old Vine
Street Colored School. More recent are the novels, some of
them of much merit, of Mrs. Julia Ditto Young, Mrs. Ida W.
Wheeler, Elbert Hubbard, Wm. T. Hornaday and Robert
C. Rogers; while Marion Wilcox, Sylvia J. Eastman, George
Hibbard, Louise Worthington, Katharine Hartman {pseud. .? ),
and a host of others have won success—or that substitute
for it, a market—in the short-story line. Not to be over-
looked is the collection of juvenile tales entitled “ Legends from
the Red Man’s Forest,” by Dorothy Tanner (Mrs. Henry E.
Montgomery) of this city. Mention of Mr. J. H. W. Howard
recalls the creditable work of another Afro-American, at one
time resident in Buffalo, the Rev. C. W. Mossell, some-time
missionary in Hayti, whose recently published volume “Tous-
saint L’Ouverture . , . or Hayti’s Struggle,” is a painstaking
and valuable chronicle.
A long list of residents of this city have published books of
travel. In Mr. Henry E. Perrine’s charming volume, “A True
.Story of Some Eventful Years in Grandpa’s Life,” printed (not
published) in 1885, we have a well-made book of over three
hundred pages. Mr. Perrine had traveled much before he came
to live with his uncle in Buffalo in 1840. He was admitted to
the bar in 1848, but soon after set out for California by way ofTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
371
Cape Horn. The story of this long voyage, of Mr. Perrine’s
experiences with other 49’ers in the California gold fields, and of
subsequent travels and experiences, is most interestingly told.
“It is largely due to the fact,” says Mr. Perrine, “that both
children and grandchildren have so many times.said, ‘Papa/ or
‘ grandpapa, ’ ‘ tell me a story—tell me the story about the
Indians! ’ that the idea became developed that there was really
enough of interest in those experiences to warrant placing them
in print for the amusement and perhaps the benefit of others.”
In 1837 there came to Buffalo an eccentric man of roaming
disposition named Thomas L. Nichols. He engaged in news-
paper work, writing for the Commercial Advertiser and the New
York Herald and established the short-lived Buffalonian. Con-
victed of libel on H. J. Stow, he was sentenced to four months
in the Erie County Jail. He served his term, spending his time
in writing a “ Journal in Jail,” which was published in 1840.
It is a curious volume of two hundred and fifty pages, containing
enough libelous matter, seemingly, to have kept the author be-
hind bars for the rest of his life. It is a rare book nowadays.
Nichols seems to have led an erratic career for many years there-
after. In London in 1864 he published an ambitious work in
two volumes entitled “ Forty Years of American Life.” It is
an interesting and for the most part well-written book, now
valuable for the pictures it presents of a state of things in the
United States now passed away. It contains many pages of
Buffalo reminiscence. Nichols traveled widely and described
everything from Government institutions to mint juleps. In the
closing chapter he gives the following quite adequate bit of
biography:
At the beginning of 1861 I commenced the publication of a weekly news-
paper in New York. One number was issued before the attack on Fort
Sumter and when it was hoped and believed peace would be preserved. But
the perfidious Government at Washington, while promising to evacuate that
fort, was preparing an expedition for its relief. The sailing of that expedition
brought war and my literary enterprise was nipped in the bud. I did not issue
a second number. If I had done so it is not likely that it would have reached
many readers.
Not every writer who has sojourned in Buffalo may be claimed
as a Buffalo author; but it is well to record that Charles A. Dana372
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and H. H. Bancroft, the historian of the Pacific Coast, both
lived in Buffalo in their youth.
The late Charles Linden published a pleasant “ Narrative of
an Excursion in Eastern Florida,” of prime interest to the
naturalist. (( A Woman’s First Impressions of Europe, being
Wayside Sketches in 1863,” dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Henry
W. Rogers, was written by Mrs. E. A. Forbes, for many years a
teacher at the Buffalo Female Academy. A charming and highly
diverting book is the “ Travels of the Du Le Telle Family,” by
“ Thankfulla ”—a series of familiar letters by Mrs. John C.
Lord. Mention should also be made of “ Saunterings in
Europe,” by the Rev. Charles Wood, formerly pastor of the
Central Presbyterian Church; of “My Holiday; How I
Spent It,” by James N. Matthews, and of Grace Carew Sheldon’s
European sketches, “ As We Saw It in ’90.” A one-time Buf-
falonian, a very successful story-writer and special correspondent,
John R. Spears, is the author, among other works of travel, of
“ The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn,” probably the most thorough
and trustworthy book in our language on that little-visited region.
The itinerancy of the Methodist Episcopal Church has sent
to Buffalo many a minister who has left his print in literary
paths. Foremost of this class is Bishop John F. Hurst, who for
many years has been extensively occupied with literary labors,
especially in the reproduction of the works of the best German
authors in English translations. He has translated Hagenbach’s
“ History of the Church in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries ”
(2.vols., 1869) ; Van Oosterzee’s “ Lectures in Defense of John’s
Gospel” (1869); Lange’s “ Romans ” (1870); and Seneca’s
“Moral Essays.” His original works include “History of
Rationalism ” (1865) ; “ Martyrs to the Tract Cause ” (1873) >
“ Outlines of Biblical History ” (1873); “Life and Literature
in the Fatherland” (1874); “Our Theological Culture,”
“Bibliotheca Theologica ” and “A General History of the
Christian Church,” upon which great work he was engaged dur-
ing his Buffalo residence. While resident here he also contri-
buted to Harper's Magazine a series of illustrated articles on
travel and work in the Orient, since republished in book-form.
Few more scholarly men than Bishop Hurst have ever resided
here. His latest literary achievement is the discovery, at Geneva,THE A UTHORS OF BUFFALO.
373
Switzerland, of the unpublished MS. journal of Capt. Wm.
Pote, Jr., kept during his captivity in the French and
Indian War, 1745-47. The volume, edited by Bishop
Hurst, is pronounced “by far the most valuable of all recent
discoveries on the period of our Colonial history to which it
relates.” His successor as resident Bishop in Buffalo, Dr. John
H. Vincent, has probably done more, as editor and author, for
Sunday-school literature, than any other living man. He is the
author of a History of Greece, and author or editor of much
Chautauqua literature.
Other Methodist clergymen whose books are well known are
the late Rev. Dr. J. B. Wentworth, one-time Presiding Elder of
the Buffalo District, whose profound “Logic of Introspection ”
was published in 1886; the Rev. Dr. George E. Ackerman,
former pastor of St. Mark’s M. E. Church, who has written
“ Researches in Philosophy ” and “ Man a Revelation of God”;
and “Religious Corporations,” “ A Handbook for Trustees,”
and especially the valuable “History of Buffalo Methodism,”
by the late Rev. Dr. Sanford Hunt.
From first to last, our clergymen have been among the pro-
ductive bookmakers. Among works of clerical authorship, not
already named, the following have been learned of:	“ Histori-
cal Sketches and Incidents illustrative of the Establishment and
Progress of Universalism in the State of New York,” by the Rev.
Stephen R. Smith ; “ Some Lessons from the Parable of the
Sower,” by the Rev. J. P. Egbert; “ The True Man and Other
Practical Sermons,” by the Rev. S. S. Mitchell; “Dogma no
Antidote for Doubt,” by James H. Fisher; “Both Sides, or
Jonathan and Absalom,” by the Rev. Dr. Rufus S. Green ;
“Handbook of Charity Organization,” by the Rev. S. Hum-
phreys Gurteen ; “ Complete System of Sunday-school Instruc-
tion,” by the Rev. Orlando Witherspoon; various writings by
the Rev. A. T. Chester, and two works by the Rev. J. H. Lan-
gille, one on ornithology, “Our Birds in Their Haunts,” the
other entitled “Snail-shell Harbor, a Picture of Life on the
northwest coast of Lake Michigan.”
The last-named writer might well be included with local
authors on natural history subjects, for he is a devoted naturalist,
and during his pastorate in Buffalo was a most delightful lecturer
%374
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before the Society of Natural Sciences. That little coterie has
had its share of authors, including Mr. Grote (who was as much
of a social scientist as he was a naturalist and poet), Carl Linden,
James W. Ward, and others already named; Prof. D. S. Kelli-
cott (formerly of the State Normal School here, now of the
Ohio State University, Columbus), and Edward P. Van Duzee
of the Grosvenor Library,’on entomology; Dr. Julius Pohlman,
on geology and other specialties; W. H. Pitt, James Locke
(Assistant-Professor at Heidelberg, translator of Menschutkin’s
“ Analytical Chemistry ” ); David F. Day, on botany, and the
Hon. George W. Clinton.
Judge Clinton was a diligent student of many subjects outside
of his profession of the law. His early taste for natural history
was never extinguished. He wrote interesting and valuable
papers on “ Fish and Fishing,” and upon “ Animals and Hunt-
ing.” An English author calls him “The Isaak Walton of
America. ’ ’ He shared in founding the Society of Natural Sciences
and was its president for many years. Numerous papers and ad-
dresses emanated from his pen upon such subjects as agriculture,
canals, manorial tenures, Indian traditions, etc. In addition to
occasional addresses and papers, which would fill many volumes,
Judge Clinton published, from i860 to 1868, a “Digest of
Decisions at Law and in Equity from the Organization of the
State to i860.” At the time of its issue this was by far the best
treatise of its kind, and still holds its place as a standard work.
In his declining years Judge Clinton edited the valuable collec-
tion of the Governor Clinton Papers which are in the State
Library at Albany.*
Contributions to literature—even to the literature of the law
—by members of the bar in Buffalo are not numerous. Perhaps
the State Papers of Millard Fillmore and of Grover Cleveland as
Governor and President, should be recognized, though this sub-
jects the word “literature ” to a considerable strain. A num-
ber of Buffalo attorneys, including some of the younger ones,
have prepared for the meetings of the Cleveland Democracy his-
torical and biographical sketches of merit, but an enumeration of
them cannot be made here. They have been collected in two
volumes. Many of the public addresses and speeches of the late
*See the memoir of Judge Clinton by David F. Day, pp. 203-225 of this volume.—Ed.THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
375
William Dorsheimer are valuable contributions to the history of
our times, notably the address delivered at Waterloo, September
3, 1879 > at the celebration to commemorate the expedition under
the command of Gen. Sullivan, against the Six Nations in 1779,
and at the dedication of the Oriskany monument August 6, 1884.
For the most part the recent writings of Buffalo lawyers have
been of an inconspicuous though worthy order, like E. Corning
Townsend’s work on “ The Statute of Distribution,” John G.
Milburn’s “ Beginnings of Society,” and various addresses and
papers, notably on literary subjects, by E. Carlton Sprague,
Sherman S. Rogers, John C. Graves and James F. Gluck.
Sheldon T. Viele has written a good biography of the Hon.
Henry K. Smith, the second Recorder of the City of Buffalo, the
friend of Martin Van Buren, William L. Marcy and other
Democratic leaders. Judge H. K. Smith himself was a rare
literary student, though he left but one published address, a
funeral oration on Captains Williams and Field, heroes of
Monterey. Among recent works of Buffalo lawyers are “The
Law of Public Health and Safety,” by Leroy Parker and Robert
H. Worthington, said to be the only treatise ever published in
this country on the relation of the laws to public health and
safety; “ A System of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology,”
by R. A. Witthaus and Tracy C. Becker, with the collaboration
of August Becker, Dr. Roswell Park, F. P. Vandenbergh and
others; a work by James F. Gluck and August Becker on
“The Law of Receivers of Corporations,” one by Charles
P. Norton on bills and notes; and the able editorial work of W.
W. Browne on an edition of the Court of Appeals.
The writings of Le Grand Marvin will probably never bring
the name of that eccentric gentleman into works on American
literature, or even into the cyclopaedias; but they will always
remain as unique productions of a unique pen. In many a
lawyer’s library are treasured up the Marvin pamphlets entitled,
“An Expose, etc., being a Wife’s Attempt, by Aid of Her
Merchants, to control (subdue?) her Husband, and the Result ”;
“ The Result? Unmarried (if ever married !), Unlassoed,” etc.;
and “ Le Grand Marvin Interviewed.” Mr. Marvin imitated
no one in his literary style, and so far as known, no one has
succeeded in imitating him.376
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Perhaps our younger lawyers are deterred from writing, as is
said (no doubt wrongly) to have been the case with one
scholarly attorney who has laid aside an unfinished work on
railroad law because, if published, judges may in future cite the
author’s own work to his detriment in important cases !
More than one citizen of Buffalo, while discharging the
duties of high public office, has contributed to the literature of
statecraft. Conspicuous is the Hon. E. G. Spaulding’s financial
history of the War entitled “ History of the Legal Tender Paper
Money issued during the Great Rebellion, being a Loan without
Interest, and a National Currency,” an octavo of three hundred
and seventeen pages, published in Buffalo in 1869. Mr. Spauld-
ing was chairman of the sub-committee on Ways and Means at
the time the Act relating to the currency issue was passed. He
justly wears the title of “ The Father of the Greenback.” Mr.
Spaulding has also published pamphlets on other financial and
economic themes, speeches in Congress, etc. A noteworthy
printed address is entitled “ One Hundred Years of Progress in
the Business of Banking/’ delivered by Mr. Spaulding at the bank
officers’ and bankers’ building, Exposition Grounds, Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia, on the occasion of its formal opening, May
30, 1876. Here, too, should be mentioned the financial pam-
phlets of William C. Cornwell, “The Currency and the Bank-
ing Law of the Dominion of Canada,” “ Greenbacks,” etc.
The citizen of Buffalo who is oftenest called upon to repre-
sent the culture and public spirit of this community is the Hon.
James O. Putnam. As Government official, as State Senator, as
diplomatic representative of our Government abroad, he has
proved an able and efficient public servant. A published volume
of his “Orations, Speeches, and Miscellanies” gives proof of
the scope of his public services, of his devotion to the welfare
of his country and the city of his home, and of the rare
catholicity of his culture.
J. N. Larned’s most conspicuous literary work is his monu-
mental “History for Ready Reference,” in five volumes.
Among his other publications are “Report on the State of Trade
Between the United States and the British Possessions in North
America,” prepared for the Secretary of the Treasury (Washing-THE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
377
ton, 1871), “ Talks about Labor,” etc. (1876), and a history of
the Buffalo Library.
In no field of authorship has Buffalo given the world better
service than in the field of medicine. The names of Austin
Flint, father and son, of Hamilton, White and Gay, lend an
undying luster to our city’s crown. Flint’s “ Principles and
Practice of Medicine” (of which more than 50,000 copies have
been sold), the younger Flint’s “ Physiology of Man ” (5 vols.);
and Frank Hastings Hamilton’s “Medical Surgery and Hy-
giene” and “Fractures and Dislocations” (a work of 1,000
octavo pages !) are standard works of their kind. There are
many books on specialties by these writers ; valuable pamphlets
by Dr. Charles C. F. Qay; while of Dr. James P. White’s
published papers, the librarian of the Buffalo Medical College
has enumerated fifty-six in one list ! Dr. White was also the
author of Chap. VI. of Beck’s “Elements of Jurisprudence,”
Vol. II. (nth Ed., Phila., i860.)
Many of our surgeons and physicians are authors. Among
recent publications in this field are Dr. William D. Granger’s
“ How to Care for the Insane ” ; pamphlets on insanity by Dr.
J. B. Andrews; published addresses by Dr. Thomas F. Roches-
ter, Dr. F. R. Campbell’s “ The Relation of Meteorology to
Disease,” and his recent comprehensive work, “The Language
of Medicine.” In 1883 G. P. Putnam’s Sons published “An
Ethical Symposium,” a series of papers concerning medical
ethics and etiquette viewed from a liberal standpoint. The
book contains an able chapter by Dr. H. R. Hopkins of Buffalo,
entitled “ Is It a Profession or a Trade ? ” Professional publica-
tions, more or less elaborate, have come from the pens of Drs.
W. W. Potter, Elmer Starr, George E. Fell, A. R. Davidson,
M. B. Mann, and others; while specialists W. C. Barrett,
Lucien Howe, and F. Park Lewis have made conspicuous con-
tributions respectively to the literature of dentistry and eye-
surgery.
There still remain to note a considerable list of works in
many classes. Mr. Henry Spayth stands master of a unique field of
science and letters in his “American Draught Player.” Origin-
ally published in i860, it has had several editions. It is claimed378
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to be the first successful attempt to reduce the game of checkers
to a system. A work that attracted attention at the time of its
appearance in 1862 was Thomas J. Sizer’s book, “ The Crisis—
Its Rationale/’ in which he considered “ our National forces the
proper remedy, and restoration of legitimate authority, the end
and object of the War.” A. R. Grote’s “ The New Infidelity ”
(1881), and Dr. J. H. Dewey’s “Introduction to the Theosophy
of the Christ,” are in many libraries. Joseph Willsey’s pains-
taking and useful compilation known as “Harper’s Book of
Facts” may not be overlooked. Willis O. Chapin’s sumptuous
volume, “The Masters and Masterpieces of Engraving,”
delights alike the art student and the bibliophile. Countless
thousands of households have Dr. Ray V. Pierce’s “People’s
Common-sense Medical Adviser. J. C. Bryant’s “ New Stand-
ard Counting-house Book-Keeping,” an octavo of 300 pages,
and his “ Business Man’s Commercial Law and Business Forms
Combined ’ ’ are standard contributions to the text-books of
business. The Rev. Solomon Kohn, one-time pastor of the Jew-
ish Congregation Beth El, is an author on subjects connected
with oriental literature. The Rev. C. L. Hutchins, assistant
rector of St. Paul’s in 1870, compiled a Church Hymnal. The
Rev. Dr. Sheldon edited a valuable work entitled “ The Three
Reformations.” The Rev. Charles R. Edwards is the author,
among other works, of an elaborate and highly original defense
of Christianity, entitled “ Chris-to-lution.”
The following enumeration must close our list, which further
inquiry would no doubt lengthen : H. R. Howland, “ Primitive
Arts and Modes of Life ’ ’ and other archaeological papers; Henry
Klein, “ Rudiments of German Etymology ” ; E. C. Pomeroy,
“ Introductory Reading-book ” and “ Spelling-book ” ; G. H.
Thornton, “ The Modern Stenographer”; W. H. Slocum,
“Autograph-list of Word-signs and Phrases” ; A. G. Bigelow,
“ Hints on Preparing Copy and Proof-reading” ; Alexander F.
Oakey/“The Art of Life and the Life of Art,” being No. 408
of the “Franklin Square Library”; J. Berry, “A Parsing-
book” ; Ed. H. Mulligan, “ Abridged Infantry Tactics ” ; Dr.
F. Bradnack, “Dr. Case’s Handbill,” a satire. There is good
humor in “An Angola Incident—the Tale of a Handkerchief inTHE AUTHORS OF BUFFALO.
379
Very Blank Verse,” by Wm. W. Kent. “The BumontTragedy,
by a Buffalonian/’ must stand without any further definition.
Charles H. Harris (“Oof T. Goof”) wrote a “History of the
Venango Oil Regions” in 1866. Elmore'H. Walker followed
it in 1868 with “ The Pennsylvania Coal Fields, and their Con-
nection with and Relation to Buffalo.” Eben P. Dorr wrote of
“The First Monitor and its Inventor”; W. H. Beard, the
famous artist, once a Buffalo resident, has enriched both art and
literature with his incomparable book, “ Humor in Animals ” ;
J. S. Buell is the author of “The Cider-Makers’ Manual,”
Deshler Welch of “The Bachelor and the Chafing Dish,” and
Mark S. Hubbell of a “History of the Buffalo Race Course.”
James W. Greene wrote “ Free Niagara,” a compact historical
sketch. “Niagara in London,” written and beautifully printed
in Buffalo, treats of Niagara Falls in historical and descriptive
fashion. It was sold at the Cyclorama of Niagara in London;
and copies of it were sumptuously bound and inscribed for
presentation to Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales—a
unique honor for Buffalo. There even abides in Buffalo a gen-
tleman who writes dime novels; but since he has never associated
his own name with this branch of his work—using so many
noms de plume that he has forgotten most of them—it is but
fair to leave him to his lucrative line of letters unidentified, like
a later Junius.